1. Technical Field of the Invention
The present invention relates in general to features enabling users to simultaneously engage in multiple telephonic communication sessions, and in particular, to a whisper feature for isolating telephonic input between the telephonic communication sessions.
2. Description of Related Art
Multi-telephony behaviors in which a user actively participates in multiple, concurrent telephonic conversations are becoming more prevalent. For example, private Branch Exchange (PBX) and Class 5 switches currently provide a “whisper” feature, typically to Call Centers, that enables a supervisor to speak into the ear of a Call Center Agent to provide help or training while the Call Center Agent is on the phone with a customer. The Call Center Agent is able to hear both the supervisor and the customer at the same time, but the supervisor's voice is heard only by the Call Center Agent, not by the customer. As a result, the current “whisper” feature allows the Call Center Agent to simultaneously listen to both the supervisor and the customer without the customer being aware that the supervisor is participating in the conversation.
However, anything the Call Center Agent says is heard by both the customer and the supervisor. Therefore, the Call Center Agent is not able to ask questions or respond to the supervisor without the customer hearing the Call Center Agent. Unfortunately, the current “whisper” feature does not provide a mechanism for isolating what is spoken by the Call Center Agent between the two conversations.
Another multi-telephony behavior that allows at least partial isolation between conversations is a “two handset operation.” Many individuals now have more than one phone, such as a desktop phone, fixed phone, cordless phone and/or one or more mobile phones, which can be operated simultaneously to carry on separate conversations. However, there is an inherent lack of privacy and a risk of bleed-through between the conversations when using multiple phones. In addition, one of the conversations may be disruptive to another conversation. For example, if a participant in a conference call receives another call on his or her mobile phone, the mobile phone conversation may be overheard by the other meeting participants, thereby disrupting the meeting.
To improve isolation between the two conversations, many phone terminals now provide a mute button that enables a user to mute the conversation. Pressing the mute button prevents the other party to the conversation from hearing the user, but still allows the user to hear that party. Thus, when involved in two separate calls, the user is able to hear both parties, but only one of the parties is able to hear the user, depending on which phone is muted. However, the initial ringing of the second call may be annoying to the user and the other party involved in the first call. In addition, in order to answer the second call privately, the user must remember to mute the first call before answering the second call, which makes such two handset operation difficult and cumbersome.
Therefore, what is needed is an enhanced whisper feature that facilitates the occurrence of multiple simultaneous telephonic conversations. In addition, what is needed is an enhanced whisper feature that provides simple and efficient isolation between multiple telephonic conversations.